Skip Navigation

  1. Doing Business
    1. Starting Out
    2. Growing
    3. Locating
    4. Canadian
    5. International
    6. Top Businesses
    7. Success Stories
    8. Real Estate
    9. Incentives
  2. Industry Clusters
    1. Advanced Manufacturing
    2. Agribusiness
    3. Back Office
    4. Hospitality/Tourism
    5. Life Sciences
    6. Logistics
  3. Data Center
    1. Demographics
    2. Workforce
    3. Education
    4. Regional Studies
  4. Our Region
    1. How Life Works
    2. Living Here
    3. Grow Your Career
    4. What To Explore
    5. Where To Learn
    6. Buffalo Homecoming
  5. About BNE
    1. Who We Are
    2. What We Do
    3. Press Room
    4. Annual Report
    5. Invest in BNE
    6. Alliances

Home > About BNE > Press Room > 2007 Archive > September > Buffalo Life Sciences thriving

Buffalo: Life Sciences Sector Thriving

By CAROLYN THOMPSON 09.07.07, 10:34 AM ET

BUFFALO, N.Y. -

The developing life sciences sector, on which Buffalo has pinned its economic hopes, gained another tenant with the launch of a company that developed a blood test that can predict whether cancerous tumors will spread.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer, among those celebrating the opening of PersonaDX Inc., admitted being at a loss about exactly what the company - one of three spun off from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute this year - does. But the technicalities were not important.

"We in government want to be here to support innovation, creativity, pushing new frontiers ... and funding that research that will push Buffalo and Roswell into the newest and most exciting frontiers of medical research," the governor said Thursday.

PersonaDX's new high-tech labs are situated in Buffalo's medical corridor, an expanding cluster of hospitals and research facilities miles and decades removed from the steel and grain mills that propped up the city's past.

The city, state and private investors have contributed tens of millions of dollars toward a future focused on translating life sciences research into commercial products, companies and high-tech, high-paying jobs.

"The economic promise of startup companies, such as PersonaDX, is extraordinary," said Dr. Donald Trump, president and chief executive of Roswell Park. "The benefits ... are clearly not limited to jobs and other forms of economic development, but also have great potential for improving the treatment of individual patients."

PersonaDX, which currently has four full-time employees, expects to employ as many as 250 in three years, said Dr. Lionel Coignet, whose research led to the formation of the company. He will serve as its chief scientific officer.

Earlier this year, Roswell Park launched Empire Genomics, which will market genetic tests for more than 200 conditions and employ about 60 people over the next five years. AndroBioSys Inc. also sprouted from Roswell and will provide screening of prostate drug candidates for drug developers while working on therapies for prostate cancer.

"While making significant and lasting contributions to medical research and health care, PersonaDX typifies the economic benefit these new businesses are making to our city's evolving and exciting entrepreneurial landscape," Mayor Byron Brown said.